Challenges for Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister

Nirmala Sitharaman had Modi and Jaitley's backing for the role

The new Narendra Modi government at the Centre may be slightly short on women's representation in the Council of Ministers compared to the last tenure, but the fact that Nirmala Sitharaman is fifth in the ranking of ministers and has been entrusted with the Ministry of Finance, goes to show that her stature has risen quietly within the BJP. Both as defence and finance minister, she has been projected as the tough woman face of the Modi government. 

If Smriti Irani took on Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the electoral battle, it was Sitharaman who took the barbs both in and